Saturday, November 22, 2008

Returned to Bamiyan for a day trip with a bunch of USAID guys to show them some of the 'bad' buildings we've reported a few weeks ago. Our reports are stirring things up, didn't mean to, just telling how it is.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Because of the US elections, this post regarding my resent trip to Bamiyan is late. What a place, I can’t imagine another field mission being as beautiful as this one! We spent eight days up in the mountainous province located right smack in the center of Afghanistan.

We flew up from Kabul in an old Soviet MI8 helicopter, weird it having the USAID logo all over it, and landed in the historic Bamiyan Valley, you can see the 1700 year old Buddha niches carved right into the cliffs from the landing strip.

While getting on the helicopter I bumped into my friend who was also going up there on a completely unrelated trip - small world.

After touching base with the New Zealand Army’s PRT base, we went to check out the Buddhas in the evening.

From Bamiyan valley we did a three-day trip to Yakewlang district, out in the far western parts of the province. And then later north to Kahmard District.

Some highlights of the field mission (Shirley, these pics are for you!):

About Me

I'm a structural engineer born and raised in California's Silicon Valley (San Francisco Bay Area). I've worked in structural and seismic engineering from California, Indonesia, Afghanistan, New Zealand and finally Costa Rica. Currently, my wife and I are living in San José working on a USAID/OFDA project preparing the city and central government on responding to a major urban earthquake.